Independent wheel suspension



June 20, 1944.

s. WULFF 2,351,651 INDEPENDENT WHEEL SUSPENSION Filed March 1, 1941 Z'ShGQtS-ShBB'C 1 1.3 Fi .1. A

.3 6 I4 8 c /6 f 0 BY dag 4 4 June 20, 1944. WULFF INDEPENDENT WHEEL SUSPENSION 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 1, i941 iezl Walffi egfr F ay

Patented June 20, 1944 UNITED STATES. PATENT OFFICE INDEPENDENT WHEEL SUSPENSION "Siegfried Wulfl, Stuttgart-Bad CamlStatt, Germany; vested in the Alien Property Custodian Application March 1, 1941, Serial No. 381,314 In Germany February 12, 1940 The present invention relates to an indepensupporting pivots each serving for mounting two dent wheelsuspension capable of yielding about guide links-or at least one of themarranged to the frame about a substantially vertical axis. lelogram so that the forces occurring at the one The invention substantially consists in supportsupporting pivot simultaneously are absorbed by ing the wheel suspensions against each other in m the other supporting pivot als0.. Thereby the the direction of rotation about the vertical axis. supporting pivots as well as the frame are in an other in the direction of rotation by a transverse serves the purpose of sustaining the supporting In a particularly suitable construction one or ly coupled to the supporting members in the dithe supporting members about their vertical axes members. The latter hereby simultaneously may vantage that the frame will substantially be revention are shown by way of example.

leased of all forces acting in their horizontal In the drawings:

plane upon the wheels and thereby upon the sup- Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view of a front axle porting members, and that additional bending according to the invention;

moments are obviated, which; occur at other Fig. 2 shows a plan view of the means for guidpoints of the frame by sustaining the supporting ing the left-hand wheel;

pivots in a horizontal plane. Simultaneously Fig. 3 is a plan view in section on the line the strains acting in a horizontal plane upon 3-3 of Fig. 1 showing the means for guiding the both wheel suspensions of a pair of wheels are right-hand wheel; rendered more uniform which is particularly iav- Fig. 4 shows a modification of a wheel suspenorable in case of steered wheels. The sustainsion according to the invention on a larger scale ment of the supporting members by one or sevand partially in section;

eral horizontally arranged spring leaves, more- Fig. 5 ls a. plan view of the one end of a transover, results in the most simple sustalnment and verse member to be describedv later; and simultaneously in a particular low weight. Fig 6 is a section on the line 6-6 of Fig 4 The invention, moreover, relates to a wheel Fig. 7 is a detail front elevation. with parts in suspension in which the supporting members for section, of a modified form of pivot mounting. the wheel suspension, arranged at both sides of Fig. 8 is a bottom plan view with parts broken the longitudinal central plane of the vehicle in away and shown in section, of the modification a manner capable of elastically yielding in all shown in Fig. 7. directions, for example substantially vertical Fig. 9 is a view similar to Fig. 8, showing a modified form of resilient connecting means between the pivots, and

Fig. 10 is a view similar to Fig. '7, showing a further modified form of resilient connection between the pivots.

In the construction shown in Fig. 1, the dirigible wheels i are carried by the wheel supports 2 which are connected by an upper link 3 and a iower link 4 as well as by joints 6 and 1 respectively to a vertical supporting pivot 5. The latter is mountedby means such as a rubber sleeve 8 in the frame .9 of the vehicle, the rubber sleeve allowing yielding of the supporting pivot mainly about its vertical axis, but also in another direction. To provide the wheel with springs, a coiled spring H), for example, is provided which is not guided and the ends of which on the one hand bear against the lower link 4 and on the other hand against a bearing bracket ll provided, for example, at the frame. To absorb the forces which tend to swing the wheel suspension about the axis of the supporting pivot 5, a fiat iron or leaf spring l2 which in a horizontal plane is somewhat resilient, is provided, which connects the two supporting pivots 5 to each other at both sides of the longitudinal centre plane of the vehicle and preferably is arranged in the plane of these supporting pivots.

According to the invention the motor l3, moreover, is mounted upon a transverse member l6, for example, by a front bearing eye I and an interposed rubber buffer IS. The transverse member I6 connects the upper ends of the supporting pivots 5 to each other. Between the transverse member l6 and the supporting pivots 5 other rubber blocks l-l are provided, which allow the required freedom of movement between the supporting pivots 5 and the motor. The transverse member l6 also preferably is somewhat elastic, more particularly capable of being elastically bent, whereby the mutual influencing of motor and wheel suspension is further reduced. To increase the resiliency the transverse member i6 may correspondingly be curved instead of being straight lined.

In the modification shown in Fig. 4, the elements also illustrated in Figs. 1-3 are designated with the corresponding reference characters used in Figs. 1-3 for such elements. In this case the two bearing members [8 and I9 are rigidly mounted upon the supporting pivots 5'. The bearing member It! serves for mounting the upper link 3' and the bearing member l9 for mounting the lower link 4'. Moreover, a shock absorber 20 as well as an abutment 2| for the coiled spring Ill ar arranged at the upperbearing member l8.

Fixed upon the upper end of the supporting pivot 5' is an engle iron 22 which by way of the interposed rubber block I1 is adherentlly con-' nected to another metal member 23. Connected to the latter is the transverse member l6 which is capable of being elastically bent and which is carrying the motor. The arrangement hereby is such that the rubber block ll of substantially rectangular cross section is between'the connecting surfaces obliquely inclined downwardly towards the central longitudinal plane of the vehicle. The forces due to the weight of the motor or other forces acting in a vertical direction, therefore, substantially are absorbed by the rubber blocks I1 whereas the rubber block I5 which,

for example, in a manner known per se, also is arranged between metal elements and adherently connected to the latter, allows substantially torsional vibrations of the motor about its longitudinal axis. Vertical vibrations are, moreover,

transverse member I6 capable of being somewhat elastically bent. The resilient members l5, I6, and I1 arranged between the motor l3 and the supporting pivots 5' are of suflicient resiliency in the horizontal direction to allow the required yielding of the supporting pivot 5', particularly the yielding about the vertical axis of the pivot, and to prevent shocks occurring at the wheel suspension to be transferred to the motor, which would be highly undesired.

To ensure a safe mounting of the supporting pivot 5' on the frame, while allowing an adjustment, the rubber sleeve 8' surrounding the supporting pivot is inserted in a metal sleeve 24 which by means of a ball-like end surface 25 and a balllike intermediate ring 26 respectively bears against ball-like bearing caps or covers 21 and 28 which are mounted upon the open ends of a vertical frame sleeve 29. The latter in turn is arranged at the point of connection of a transverse beam 30 of the frame to a longitudinal beam of the frame which, for example, may also be of tubeor box-like form. The frame sleeve 29 is welded to these frame beams to form a solid unit with same.

As may be seen from Fig. 4, the lower transverse member .12, formed as a flat iron or as a spring leaf and serving to sustain the two supporting pivots relatively to each other, is rigidly connected to the bearing member IQ for the lower guide link l. Accordingly the bearing member i9 has an inwardly directed flange 3|, the lower surface of which is at 32 toothed or chequered in the longitudinal directionv of the transverse member l2. The end of the transverse member l2 also is corerspondingly toothed or chequered. By screws 33 the transverse member I2 is strongly pressed against the flange 31 of the bearing member 19 so that by means of the toothed or chequered part 32 a rigid coupling between these two parts is obtained in the direction of rotation about the axis of the supporting pivot 5'. I

Yielding of the wheel suspension about the vertical axis of the supporting pivot 5', therefore, is possible only by a bending of the transverse member l2 in a horizontal plane, 1. e. by bending forces acting 'along the edges of the spring leaf I2.

absorbed by the Thereby the required relatively slight resiliency of the wheel suspension in a horizontal plane is ensured on the one hand, and too large a resiliency in this plane, however, is prevented on the other hand.

By the use of a spring leaf for supporting, a particular low weight and a special large simplicity of the supporting members is obtained,

As the two supporting pivots 5' are'directly sustained with regard to each other by means of the transverse member l2, the frame is released from the supporting forces of the wheel suspension in the horizontal plane.

The arrangement of the lower transverse member l2 and the upper transverse member l6 effects supporting of the two oppositely arranged elastically arranged supporting pivots 5' in the manner of a parallelogram, so that under the action of the wheel pressure the upper transverse member I8 is under strain of compression, whereas the lower transverse member I2' is under strain of tension.

If desired, the supporting pivots may be sustained with regard to each other about vertical axes by separate supporting arms for each of the supporting pivots, for example, in such a manner that the bearing member IQ of the left-hand supthe connection between the porting pivot bears against-the bearing member I! of the right-hand supporting pivot and vice versa, rubber being interposed between the bearing member and member (l2'). In Figs. '7 and 8 is shown such a construction, the lower connecting member beconstruction with a leaf spring 36 provided withvertically arranged spring leaves between bear- A torsional spring mounted on the be used which by means of suitably ings I9". frame may .interconnected lever arms are actuated by the supporting pivots resiliently mounted about a vertical axis of rotation in such a manner that a rotation of the one supporting pivot tends to effect rotation of the other supporing pivot in opposite direction.

In Fig. 10 is shown such construction, with a torsion rod 31 provided at its ends withdownwardly extended arms having spherical extremities fitting into sockets at the inner extremities of arms 38 on the pivots pivots will act to twist the torsion rods bringing about yleldable resistance to the of the pivots.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said'invention and in what manner th same is to be performed I declare that what I claim is: 1. An independent wheel suspension of at least two wheels for vehicles comprising for each wheel a wheel support, two guiding links, at least one of these being rotatably connected to a supporting member, thjs latter being elastically mounted on the vehicle, the supporting members being connected to each other by resilient members, at least one resilient member being used for each pair of supporting members, the connection between the .resilient member and the supporting members being rigid against torsion, at leastone Movements of the turning of said resilient members comprising a spring leaf horizontally arranged and stressed along its edges, connecting the supporting members.

2. An independent wheel suspension of at least two wheels-for motor vehicles comprising for each wheel a wheel support, two guiding links, at least one of these being rotatably connected to a supporting pivot, this latter being elastically mounted on the frame of the vehicle, the supporting pivots being connected to each other by two transverse members, one being, rigidly connected to the supporting pivots and resilient in itself, the, other being oscillatable relatively to the supporting pivots. I

3. A wheel suspension as set forth in claim 2,

rigidly connected resilient member and the support pivots being also rigid against torsion.

the corresponding connecting wheel a wheel support, two

ing pivots and resilient in itself, the other being oscillatable relatively to the supporting pivots, the connection between at {least one of the transverse members and the supporting pivots being rigid against torsion, at least one of said transverse members comprising a spring leaf horizontally arranged and stressed along its edges, connecting the supporting pivots.

5. An independent wheel suspension of at least two wheels for vehicles comprising for each guiding links, at least one of these being rotatably connected to a supporting pivot. this latterbeing elastically mounted on the frame of the vehicle, the supporting pivots being connected to each other by trans- 31, thus 4. An independent wheel suspension of at least verse members, one being rigidly connected to the supporting pivots and resilient in itself, the

other being oscillatable relatively to the supporting pivots, the connection between at least one of the transverse members and the supporting pivots being rigid against torsion, at least one of said transverse members comprising a spring leaf horizontally arranged and stressed along its edges, connecting the supporting pivots, the other transverse member being arranged in spaced relation above said spring leaf transverse member, and the supporting pivots being mounted in rubber on the vehicle.

6. An independent wheel suspension of at least two wheels for motor vehicles comprising for each wheel a wheel support, two guiding links. at least one of these being rotatably connected to a supporting pivot, this latter being ,elastically mounted on the frame of the vehicle, the supporting pivots being connected to each other by two transverse members, one being rigidly connected to the supporting pivots and resilient in itself, the other being resiliently connected in direction of rotation to the supporting pivot.

7. A wheel suspension as set forth in claim 6, the connection between the rigidly connected transverse member and the supporting pivots being also rigid against torsion.

8. .An independent wheel suspension of at least two wheels for vehicles comprising for each wheel a wheel support, two guiding links, at least one of these being rotatably connected to a supporting pivot, this latter being elastically mounted on the frame of the vehicle, the supporting pivots being connected to each other by transverse members. one being rigidly connected to the supporting pivots and resilient in itself, the other being resiliently connected for oscillation relatively to the supporting pivots, the connection between at least one of the transverse mem bers and the supporting pivots being rigid against torsion, at least one of said transverse members comprising a spring leaf horizontally arranged and stressed along its edges, connecting the supporting pivots.

9. An independnet wheel suspension of at least two wheels for wheel a wheel support, two guiding links, at'least one-of these being rotatably connected to a supporting pivot, this latter being elastically mounted on the frame of the vehicle, the supporting pivots being connected to each other by transverse members, one being rigidly connected ta the supporting pivots and resilient in itself, th other being oscillatable relatively to the supporting pivots, the connection between at least one of the transverse members andthe supporting pivots being rigid against torsion, at least one of said transverse members comprising a spring bers, one being rigidly connected to the supportvehicles comprising for each leaf horizontally arranged'and stressed along its edges, connecting the supp rting pivots, the

other transverse member being arranged in a spaced relation above said spring leaf transverse member, and the supporting pivots being mounted in rubber on the frame.

10. In a vehicle having a frame, a pair of wheel supports, wheels on said support, a pair of supporting members on said frame, guiding means. one respectively connected between each supporting member and its corresponding wheel support, means for mounting. each supporting member on said frame for yielding movement about a substantially vertical axis, whereby each wheel support and guiding means moves about said axis with its supporting member as a unit, and means for resiliently interconnecting said supporting members at a plurality of points -so that the movement of one supporting member is resiliently resisted by the other.

11. The-combination according to claim 10, in which said interconnecting means comprises a resilient member rigidly connected to said supporting members. a

12. In a vehicle having a frame, a pair of wheel supports, wheels on said supports, a pair of supporting members on said frame, guiding means, one respectively connected between each supporting member and its corresponding wheel support. means for mounting said supporting members on said frame for yielding movement about a substantially vertical axis, whereby each wheel support and guiding means move as a unit with each of its supporting member about said axis, and a horizontally arranged leaf sp in rigidly interconnected between said supporting members, whereby movement of said supporting members about a vertical axis is resisted by bending of the leaf spring in a horizontal plane.

13. In a vehicle having a frame, a pair of wheel, supports, wheels on said support, a pair of supporting members on said frame, guiding means, one respectively connected to each supporting member and its corresponding wheel support, means for mounting said supporting members in said frame for yielding movement about a subtantially vertical axis. and two transverse members positioned substantially one above the other and each yieldably interconnecting said. two supporting members, whereby said two supporting members and said two transverse members form a quadrilateral lying in a substantially vertical plane and yieldable substantially independently of the frame.

14. The combination according to claim 13. in which one of said transverse members is formed as a resilient member rigidly interconnected to the supporting members, and means for-connecting the other transverse member to said supporting members for yieldable movement about a substantially vertical axis.

15. The combination according to claim 13. in which said supporting members comprise substantially vertical pivots, the ends of which are connected to each other by said transverse .members, one of said transverse members comprising a resilient member rigidly connected to the end of said pivot, and means for connecting the other transverse member to the other end of said povot for yieldable movement about a substantially vertical axis.

16. The combination according to claim 13, in which one of said transverse members comprises a horizontally positioned spring rigidly interconnected to said, supporting member.

17. The combination according to claim 10, in which the means for yieldably mounting said supporting members on said frame include rubber supports.

18. The combination according to claim 13. in which the means for yieldably mounting said supporting members on the frame include rubber supports.

. SIEGFRIED WULFF. 

